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| About |
THE BLOG--HISTORY
"Blue Oasis" began in 2005 in its Blogger format (now an archive) and became possibly the first Alaska Blog on Progressive Politics. At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis was honored to represent Alaska as the state blog.
Transition--Community Blog
In September 2008, Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis moved to a Soapblox Community Blog format. Readers can become full participants by registering on the blog to comment and write "diaries." Diary titles appear on the right sidebar for folks to read and provide comments. Blog editors may choose to move some of these diaries to the front page.
While this Community was formed specifically with Alaska in mind, all "friends of Alaska" are welcome as members!
**Note about registering** Scroll down the right side until you find the link to register. Then, just follow the instructions!
**Note about comments** To comment on a story, click on the heading and then look for the "comment bar" at the bottom (it's light grey, I can't seem to change it). I believe the font color NOW permits you to see the "post comment" text.
YOUR BLOGMISTRESS
My name is Linda Kellen Biegel and I am a former 15-year Federal employee. Thirteen of those years were spent working for the US Army Corps of Engineers. I am also semi-retired from the Alaska music scene (singer, sound tech, stage manager, logistics).
When the blog was chosen to represent Alaska in the DNCC State Blogger Pool at the Denver Convention, I attended with the help of Alaska Real blogmistress, Writing Raven and my daughter Morrigan. On August 29th, one day after Barack Obama's inspiring speech at Invesco Field , my life took another turn as it did for all Alaska bloggers when Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen to be John McCain's VP running mate. Since then, I've either assisted or have been interviewed by media from the UK, Italy, Australia and Germany as well as national media outlets such as Wall Street Journal, NY Times, ABC Good Morning America's Kate Snow, National Journal, Dallas Morning News, LA Times, and NPR.
Presently, I work as a freelance writer, PR, event coordinator, community organizer, wife to computer programmer Josh and mother to 11-year-old Morrigan. Our family especially enjoys our summers in Alaska where we get to subsistence set-net fish Sockeye salmon as well as halibut fish/whalewatch in the family's homemade aluminum boat, "The Neverdone" (when it's working). We reside in Anchorage, Alaska.
Origin of "Celtic Diva"
I've used "Celtic Diva" as a screen name since the early 1990's on Web TV.
"Celtic"
"Folks have asked about my Celtic heritage, especially in light of my name. What they don't realize is that I'm adopted. I was born Valerie Morehead of the Clan Muirhead. I was adopted at three-months-old by the Kellens. I always "knew" I was Celt even before really knew. I was drawn to all things Scottish, especially music. That's why my parents eventually told me at age 16."
"Diva"
"Linda is well-known in Alaska & beyond as the prominent progressive political blogger Celtic Diva of Celtic Diva?s Blue Oasis. But back in the day, the early 1990s, I knew her as Linda Kellen, a member of the local folk/rock band Sky is Blu, which amongst other things performed in at least a couple or so of the annual women?s show Celebration of Change, in which I also performed. And if you don?t already know, let me tell you: Linda is one fine damn singer."
I went on after the break-up of "Sky is Blu" to perform with various Alaska musicians and work with national folks like Bo Diddly, Coco Montoya, Debbie Davies, Taj Mahal, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Bad Company, Creedence Clearwater, Carny Wilson, etc...
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| Proud Member of These Organizations: |
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For the Alaska Community and beyond...
My daughter touched a Silver Medal!
USA Women's Olympic Hockey Team Star Kerry Weiland with our friend Isabella and my daughter Morrigan at St. Baldrick's Day
(Scroll down to find posts.)
(Please register to participate in diaries and comments! We'd love for you to join our Community!)
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Thu Oct 22, 2009 at 18:01:02 PM AKDT
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| Melissa S. Green
Henkimaa.com You can also find the original of this post on my website. Thanks!
Crossed Genres Issue 12, the LGBTQ issue, goes live on November 1. And I'm in it. Woohoo! My short story "Cold," about two young women on a planet in the late stages of terraforming, will appear on page... -- well, I don't know what page it'll be on. But it'll be in the printed issue, & on the Crossed Genres website too. Along with some other really good stories & artwork, like the artwork above which comes from the issue's cover. But while I'm really happy about being published in it, & will keep bragging it up in other posts, that's not my primary purpose with this post. The opposite of homophobia is... On September 1, in one of two posts I wrote in celebration of Outer Alliance Pride Day, I wrote a post called "Queer eye for the sci-fi (& fantasy): LGBTA writers & homophobia" about antigay prejudice in the world of science fiction & fantasy. It was a homophobic rant by Nebula-award nominated John C. Wright that prompted the founding of the Outer Alliance in the first place. (I also talked about Orson Scott Card.) [Ref #1] Less than two weeks later, in a post called "Cold, Crossed Genres, & Flash homophobia", I wrote about another instance of homophobia in the SF/F world: the refusal by Jake Freivald, editor of Flash Fiction Online, to accept Crossed Genres' ad calling for submissions to the LGBTQ issue (yes, this same issue that's about to be published, with me in it) because that editor doesn't accept "sexually themed ads" — & to him, anything with LGBTQ content was "sexually themed." Which is not the last thing Jake Freivald said that made a lot of people including me to rate him as homophobic, even if Frievald himself still claimes to "like" the gay people he knows. [Ref #2] ... welcoming. There was a lot of reaction to the FFO editor's action once it became known. I write some about that in that post too. But here's something I didn't mention: Shortly after Bart Leib on Crossed Genres' blog & Outer Alliance posted about FFO as a queer-unfriendly market [Refs #3–4], Bart Leib was approached by Pablo Defendini of Tor.com. Tor.com is the community site associated with Tor Books, one of the biggest publishers in science fiction/fantasy. Defendini wrote about FFO's rejection of the ad: We find this attitude reprehensible, and would like to do our part in disabusing the public at large of the notion that the SF/F community is not LGBTQ-friendly. Tor.com would be more than happy to host your ad for the LBGTQ issue for free, for a period of, say, two or three weeks leading into the publication of the issue on 01 November?[Ref #5]
The ad at the top of this page went live on Tor.com yesterday. Now, & for the next couple of weeks, it appears as a banner ad on the very top of Tor's home page (you might have to refresh the screen a few times, as the Crossed Genres' ad alternates with other ads placed there). Now, that might not seem like a big deal. But it's an unanticipated act of generosity & welcome not only to Crossed Genres' & its LGBTQ issue, but to LGBTQ & allied writers and readers as a whole, from one of SF/F's top publishers. Let Tor.com know your appreciation.  I also want to mention here that Crossed Genres isn't an LGBTQ magazine. It's a science fiction/fantasy magazine — as it advertises itself, "science fiction & fantasy with a twist." But its also a member of the Outer Alliance, & while there's only one LGBTQ issue (so far, anyway), they always welcome new submissions with LGBTQ themes, so long as those submissions also have elements of Crossed Genres’ current theme. See the current genre page for details.
I've already been encouraging some of my friends who write good SF/F to think about submitting to Crossed Genres. I'll be doing it again myself. References - 9/1/09. "Queer eye for the sci-fi (& fantasy): LGBTA writers & homophobia" by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
- 9/12/09. "Cold, Crossed Genres, & Flash homophobia" by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
- 9/9/09. “SFF market rejects our LGBTQ ad” by Bart Leib (Crossed Genres).
- 9/9/09. “Regarding queer-unfriendly markets” by mbranesf (Outer Alliance).
- 9/10/09. "Just keep your wide eyes wide wide open" by Barb Leib (Crossed Genres blog).
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| yksin :: Major science fiction/fantasy publisher extends welcome to queer folks |
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